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This year's Winter Pacific Seminar will be held on Saturday, February 23, 2013, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., at the Los Angeles Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple.
Keynote: Dr. Takamaro Shigaraki, The Path of the Nembutsu
He will speak in Japanese with English translation by Rev. Dr. David Matsumoto, Institute of Buddhist Studies. The presentation will be followed by a dialogue with Dr. Shigaraki.
This event is co-sponsored by the Institute of Buddhist Studies and the Center for Buddhist Education.
More information »
Dr. Shigaraki is a noted Shin Buddhist Scholar, former professor and president...

The Graduate Theological Union, along with the Center for the Arts, Religion, and Education and the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion, invite you to join us for a discussion following the May 14, 2015 performance of the Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Head of Passes, which is based in part on the Book of Job.
The discussion will occur in the Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s cafe following the performance and include a panel of experts, including:
· Dr. LeAnn Snow Flesher, Academic Dean and Professor of Old Testament, American Baptist Seminary of the West
· Dr. James A....

Doug Adams Gallery (inside the Badè Museum of Biblical Archeology), Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Avenue, Berkeley
About the Exhibition:
In Icon & Artifact, Paul Roorda uses ashes, gold leaf, historical materials, and discarded Bibles to express a neo-liturgical approach to Christian art and ritual. Through his creative process, Roorda gives us works of arresting beauty, imbued with meaning.
The 17 pieces in this exhibition are grouped in three categories: In Slate Requiem, Roorda makes use of slate tiles from an old church roof to examine the tension between faith and knowledge,...

The Graduate Theological Union and the Center for the Arts, Religion, and Education are excited to announce a new partnership with the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. As part of this partnership, a group of GTU faculty members will host a panel discussion following an upcoming performance of Head of Passes, a new play by MacArthur Genius award winner Tarell Alvin McCraney that is based in part on the Book of Job. The play runs at the Berkeley Rep from April 10 through May 24; details on the date of the GTU panel will be announced soon.
In the meantime, the Berkeley Repertory Theatre is offering a...

The Graduate Theological Union, in conjunction with the Center for Arts, Religion and Education, sponsored Modern Divine: An Interfaith Panel on Art and Spirituality on October 27 at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. The panel, consisting of Deena Aranoff, CJS, Devin Zuber, PSR, Munir Jiwa, CIS, and Riess Potterveld, GTU (moderator), shared insights and reflections on works of art in the CJM exhibit Beyond Belief: 100 Years of the Spiritual in Modern Art. (http://beyondbelief.thecjm.org/) This collaborative event showcased not only varied expressions of spirituality through...

The Center for Arts and Religion would like to invite you to their first Brown Bag Lunch event for Spring 2016. On February 5th from 12-1pm, Yohana Junker, a GTU doctoral student in Art & Religion and Fall 2015 CARE Grant Awardee, will be presenting a talk entitled, "Aspects of Awe, Wonder, and Spirituality in the Landscape Paintings of Georgia O'Keefe."This event is free and open to the public; please bring your lunch and join us!
When: February 5th 12-1pm
Where Doug Adams Gallery, Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave, Berkeley, CA 94709

Center for Arts and Religion News
From the Spring 2019 edition of Skylight
See PDF of this article
In February, CARe Director Dr. Elizabeth S. Peña and GTU faculty member Dr. Kathryn Barush (pictured)presented papers at the College Art Association’s 107th annual conference in New York City. This conference featured more than 300 sessions on a wide range of art-related topics. As part of the session on Religious Object and Modern/Contemporary Audiences, Dr. Peña discussed the display of Hindu and Buddhist sacred objects in museum contexts, and Dr. Barush (who was session co-chair) spoke on...

Munir Jiwa, director of the Center for Islamic Studies, and assistant professor of Islamic Studies, has a rich background in engaging difference. His research has addressed mass media portrayals of Islam and Muslims.
Jiwa was previously at the University of Toronto, where he was a Mellon postdoctoral fellow in the Department and Center for the Study of Religion. He holds a master’s degree in religion from Harvard and a doctorate in anthropology from Columbia University.
“Few theological schools and seminaries offer Islamic Studies,” says Jiwa. “With its distinguished faculty and students,...

From the Fall 2016 issue of Currents, view PDF
By Elizabeth S. Peña
Picturing things, taking a view, is what makes us human; art is making sense and giving shape to that sense. It is like the religious search for God. —Gerhard Richter
The arts—literature, dance, music, and the visual arts—enhance religious experience and evoke transcendence. Artistic expression often provides common ground for scholars and practitioners representing a wide variety of faith traditions. In the classroom the arts offer entry into complex concepts and philosophies. These are just a few of the reasons why the...

by Arthur Holder
from Currents Fall 2015
Responding to the changing landscapes of the academy and the wider society, the GTU has created an innovative approach to doctoral education that features new opportunities for interdisciplinary scholarship and interreligious conversation. Students who enter the PhD and ThD programs at the GTU in fall 2016 will be able to take advantage of this new approach. The curriculum recently adopted by the Core Doctoral Faculty builds on the historic strengths of the GTU while making the doctoral program more responsive to the diverse research interests and...

Pacific School of Religion Quad, 1798 Scenic Avenue, Berkeley
Join us in celebrating this year’s National Coming Out Day with refreshments, music, and community. There will also be a CLGS Library book giveaway that includes a vast selection of gender and sexuality centered fiction and nonfiction books.
Sponsored by the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at Pacific School of Religion www.clgs.org

The Center for the Arts, Religion, and Education (CARE) marked its 25th anniversary in 2012. A bridge between campus and community, a connection of academe and the arts, the Center is a GTU-affiliated autonomous non-profit providing “theological reflection and practice through educational curriculum in arts and religion and to present related arts programs that enhance the GTU community.”
Effervescent personality Doug Adams, Professor of Christianity and the Arts at Pacific School of Religion (PSR) and leader in the field of religion and the arts, founded the Center in 1987 to expand the...

The new Doug Adams Gallery, operated by the Center for the Arts & Religion at the Graduate Theological Union, has its grand opening on Tuesday, September 6, at 5 pm.
The reception marks not only the relocation and reopening of the Doug Adams Gallery, but the inauguration of the Center for the Arts & Religion as an academic unit of the Graduate Theological Union (GTU). The addition of the Center for the Arts & Religion (CARe) to the GTU means an enhanced role for the arts both within the intitution and across the community.
The opening exhibit, “The Hermitage of Landscape,” will feature the...

Berkeley, CA – October 3, 2018 The Center for the Arts & Religion at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) celebrates the publication of Gestures to the Divine: Reflections on Eco-Spirituality, a book that brings together the nature-focused artwork of Hagit Cohen and reflections on eco-spirituality by scholars from the GTU. The release accompanies the exhibition of Cohen’s work at the GTU’s Doug Adams Gallery in Berkeley through December 13, 2018.
Hagit Cohen’s minimalist prints of plant seeds and pods inspire awe and contemplation. As she explains, “nothing is too small to be the object of...

An institution of higher learning unlike any other, the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley brings together scholars of the world’s diverse religions and wisdom traditions to advance new knowledge, share inspiration, and collaborate on solutions.